Dios ha visto tus luchas

Last week was one of the most successful in the entire mission. We were able to take out two more solid baptismal dates. One of those was with Jimena Alegre. Her parents were recently baptized about three months ago, and we´ve continued teaching her. Finally she accepted the baptismal invitation, making her father the happiest man in the world. The Alegre family represents, in my mind, a true conversion to the gospel. They are always looking for ways to help the ward in which we live. Carmen tells us about her experiences with sharing the gospel with her friends at work and family. Even though she gets rejected, she tells us how good she feels after doing it. It will be a special baptism, and just another step toward their goal of being sealed as a family in the temple in a year.

In other news, the Huerta family, Macedonio, took a bit of a step back the past week. We went to our teaching appointment on Saturday, and Macedonio started talking about his hard life, which he is prone to do, which made him progressively more sad and stressed out. He wants to get baptized, but there are some distinct barriers in the way, the biggest being his inability to have faith and hope that God will bless him for the sacrifice he´s making. To make matters worse, he didn´t show up to sacrament meeting the last week. On a different note, his sweet daughter Myra, 9 years old, accepted the invitation to be baptized with her father on the 5th of June. When I initially invited her, she told me she had already been baptized. I explained to her that baptism was like a door to get back on the path to live with God. But we had to enter through the right door. I testified to her that I knew this church was the right path to enter back into our Fathers presence. She agreed to be baptized. The next visit she told me that she had a dream with me and Elder Gibbs. She told me that Jesus appeared to her as well and told her that "the Mormon church was true." Used to having a catholic school, she asked if there was a Mormon school that she could enroll in. We told her that Primary would just have to do for now.

The dueling Damians surprised us this week. I can´t remember if I´ve told you about them. We found their family a few weeks ago, but the constant father-son tension made it difficult to teach. We tried taking out a baptismal date with Damian, but he kindly informed us he would have to think about it. We invited him to church hoping that he would show up, and to our surprise he did. Along with his father, who had initially told us he would never participate in the church. The talks that day were tailored to the investigators. It was all about having peace in the family and avoiding anger. Exactly what the Damians needed.

We had enormous success on the finding front. As we were walking down the street Saturday morning, it was cold, and we were busy making contacts. We saw a man standing in the street trying to clear away some branches from his front lawn. We tried to contact him which initially startled him, but after a few moments of talking he revealed to us that his father had recently passed away. He was afraid because he had always been bitter against God and religion. We explained very simply that when we die we will still have the opportunity of accepting gospel truths on the other side of the veil. He was interested, but didn´t want to let us into his house as his wife was there. We set an appointment for tomorrow morning here in the church.

That same morning, we were walking along the dirt roads of the villa when we came across the house of our Elders quorum president. He was talking from across the street to a neighbor. We quickly asked for his name and went to contact him. His name was Luis, and he almost instantly let us into his house to share a message. We beckoned back to Arnaldo, presidente, to come join us in the lesson. He agreed and we were able to find Luis and his wife. During the lesson, they expressed to us how good they felt. That they had listened to other religions before, but always from a distance and had never let them into the house. It was about that time that Luis received a text message which startled him immensely. It was a random forward, which he declared as bizarre as his phone was without credit and he couldn´t receive messages. It read:

Dios ha visto tus luchas. Él dice que están llegando a su fin. Una bendicion está viniendo en tu direccion si tu crees.

Or in English

God has seen your trials. He says they are coming to an end. A blessing is coming in your direction, if you believe.

It was incredible. Luis had informed us prior that he was afflicted with an accident which should have killed him. The big scar on the side of his head was a testament to it. We shared the book of Mormon and told him it could help him immensely. He agreed to read and pray.

In short, that is merely a taste of the amazing blessings we have received this week. In all aspects of the work. We know God is putting us in the paths of those who are prepared, and I have never been happier to be serving in this work.

One more brief experience.

After Sacrament meeting on Sunday, someone came into gospel principles and informed us that an investigator was at the door. We went to see, and were frankly surprised to see Daniel. We had found Daniel in the former investigator section of the area book nearly three weeks ago. The first time we passed by his house, he was impartial to the message. The second time he allowed us to come in and share a message. He talked about his Christian background, and his deep love for the scout work. Finally, all the struggles to get my eagle scout were able to pay off, and I was able to show him a picture of all us brothers in our scout uniforms. Daniel got out his photos as well and began telling us everything from the scout motto, to a double half hitch knot. After the initial lesson, we were disappointed the third time we came when he wouldn´t let us in. But he was willing to talk some more Boy Scout memories with us. We had similar experiences in successive visits but never let us in over again. We decided not to pass by again, and that was what we perceived was the end of Daniel...

Until that Sunday when he showed up after sacrament. He informed us that his wife had thrown him out of his house and that he was now going friend to friend looking for a place to live. To make matters worse he lost his job. We were able to redirect him to the work representative in the church who was able to give him some options. Today we had another appointment here in the Church, where he told us that he felt amazing on Sunday, felt something different than the other churches he had been to, and he had been to many. Even though he had had a strong Christian background, he had never found a congregation. When we had showed him our relationship with the scout program, (Elder Gibbs is an Eagle Scout too) he took it as something distinct. Something that set us apart. He knew that we were sent from God and wanted to learn more about the church. We had a very spiritual cita with the first vision today, and we have another one on Friday.

Brief office update:

As of about a week ago, Hermana Fitch had to go home early. Leaving the entire secretary job to me. It has been a baptism by fire, but with some considerable help from the Lord I´ve managed not to mess anything up in the mission too bad. It´s just the little things like ordering flights and making sure people have rides to and from the airport. Needless to say I´ve been living in a bit of fear as of late, but thankfully, it’s been a good learning experience.

No time

I love this work. It is truly a marvelous work and a wonder. I don´t know if I´ve ever seen so many successive experiences of guidance by the Lord. I know this is His work, and we have the right to be guided to the elect if we are doing our best and have love for those we serve. I love the Argentine people, and I love being a missionary. I was thinking many times this week, in between running to and from appointments, trying to find new investigators, and trying to get others to progress, between all the work, I was thinking, This is as good as it gets. This is the best life I could ever live. I never want this to end. Missionary work is the work of God. If it was my decision I wouldn´t come home.